Two indicted in foiled assassination plot

Two men allegedly working for "factions of the Iranian government" were charged with plotting to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the U.S. and to attack the Saudi and Israeli embassies, Attorney General Eric Holder said Tuesday. NBC’s Andrea Mitchell reports.

Security

DOJ Anounces Arrest of Alleged New York State ISIS Recruiter

Jeh Johnson on Using Personal Email on Work Computer: Whoops not a Good Practice

NBC News
July 21, 2015

Netanyahu to Holt: Iran Deal Poses Great Danger to Israel, America and the World

NBC News
July 15, 2015

Clapper Calls China 'Leading Suspect' in OPM Hack

NBC News
June 25, 2015

Former FBI Agent: Supremacist Groups Always Looking for New Recruits

NBC News
June 23, 2015

Flashback: Edward Snowden Revealed as NSA Whistleblower

June 09, 2015

Authorities Release Video of Rahim Shooting

NBC News
June 08, 2015

Combating Viral Terrorism

NBC News Channel
June 04, 2015

Police: Arrest Made in Boston Terror Plot

NBC News Channel
June 03, 2015

Gyro Pilot: 'We Can Return Our Democracy to the People'

NBC News
May 21, 2015

Arrests Made in German Right Wing Extremist Plot

NBC News
May 06, 2015

FAA: Approach to Drones 'Test a Little, Learn a Little, Try a Little'

NBC News
May 06, 2015

This content comes from a Full-Text Transcript of the program.

BRIAN WILLIAMS, anchor:Now to the midafternoon news conference that got everybody's attention.
The US
attorney general came to the podium and said the
United States
had indicted two
Iranians
and foiled an alleged terrorist plot that involved Mexican
drug lords
, murder for hire, and a lot of money to kill the Saudi ambassador. As he laid out the details, it all sounded so outlandish a lot of people wondered if it was all for real. With us from our
Washington
bureau tonight, our chief foreign affairs correspondent,
Andrea Mitchell
.
Andrea
, good evening.

ANDREA MITCHELL reporting:Good evening,
Brian
. We've been running the traps. The attorney general and the
FBI director
laid out a plot that, as you say, on its face sounds bizarre. But US officials insists this was a real plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador and bomb his embassy here in
Washington
.

Mr. ROBERT MUELLER (FBI Director):And though it reads like the pages of a
Hollywood
script, the impact would have been very real and many lives would have been lost.

MITCHELL:An alleged $1 1/2 million plot to assassinate
Saudi Arabia
's ambassador
Adel al-Jubeir
, a veteran diplomat and
King Abdullah
's right-hand man, by blowing him up in an undetermined
Washington
restaurant and bombing the
Saudi Embassy
in
Washington
. US officials tell
NBC News
a secondary plot was to target
Israel
's
Embassy
in
Washington
. The accused, an Iranian-born
US citizen
,
Manssor Arbabsiar
, was arraigned in
Manhattan
this afternoon. A co-conspirator named in the indictment remains at large, but the administration says
Iran's government
was behind it all.

Mr. ERIC HOLDER (United States Attorney General):The complaint alleges that this conspiracy was conceived, was sponsored and was directed from
Iran
.

MITCHELL:Arbabsiar
was arrested 12 days ago and officials say has been cooperating ever since. When pressed, even US officials acknowledge it all sounds like a cheap thriller. According to the complaint, since last spring,
Arbabsiar
met in
Mexico
with a man he thought was a member of a drug cartel, trying to hire an assassin to kill the Saudi diplomat. But from the start, the Mexican was an agent for the
US government
. The Iranian even got $100,000 supposedly wired from
Iran
to the US as a down payment to kill the Saudi ambassador at a
Washington
restaurant. When the agent warned there could also be senators dining there, others could die,
Arbabsiar
supposedly said, "No problem," or, "No big deal."

Mr. KENNETH POLLACK (Middle East Analyst):There are a lot of details about this that sound a little bit too salacious to be true. It suggests a willingness to act aggressively, even recklessly, on the part of the
Iranian regime
that, quite frankly, we haven't seen from the
Iranians
since the
1980s
.

MITCHELL:Tonight
Iran
's television dismissed the plot as a US fabrication. The
US Treasury
, though, has sanctioned five
Iranians
, including the man who has led the powerful
Quds Force
for more than a decade.

Secretary HILLARY CLINTON (Secretary of State):This kind of action, which violates international norms, must be ended.

MITCHELL:Today
President Obama
visited the team that worked on foiling the alleged plot in the
Situation Room
to thank them for their work, and he also called the Saudi ambassador to express solidarity. US officials say top Iranian officials either knew about the plot or they have a military force running amok, and that either way they have to explain this to the world.

Brian:Now,
Andrea
, I know it's guesswork. Is this the kind of thing where we're likely to see Saudi retaliation?

WILLIAMS:I don't think you're going to see direct retaliation. I think that they are going to take their time, but this certainly sets the stage for what could be Saudi retaliation, Israeli retaliation. This is a lot of people on edge tonight.

MITCHELL:All right.
Andrea Mitchell
with the story out of
Washington
for us.
Andrea
, thanks.